1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to symmetrical polyamine derivatives and formulations comprising such compounds, and more specifically to polyamine derivatives that are partially acylated and optionally carry an auxiliary group. Such compounds are useful in introducing siRNA into a cell, in silencing expression of a target sequence, in delivering in vivo of siRNA, and in treating diseases and/or disorders.
2. Description of the Related Art
The compounds, compositions and methods of the invention are useful in therapeutic, research, and diagnostic applications that rely upon the efficient transfer of biologically active molecules into cells, tissues, and organs. The discussion is provided only for understanding of the invention that follows.
The cellular delivery of various therapeutic compounds, such as antiviral and chemotherapeutic agents, is usually compromised by two limitations. First, the selectivity of a number of therapeutic agents is often low, resulting in high toxicity to normal tissues. Secondly, the trafficking of many compounds into living cells is highly restricted by the complex membrane systems of the cell. Specific transporters allow the selective entry of nutrients or regulatory molecules, while excluding most exogenous molecules such as nucleic acids and proteins. Various strategies can be used to improve transport of compounds into cells, including the use of lipid carriers, biodegradable polymers, and various conjugate systems.
The most well studied approaches for improving the transport of foreign nucleic acids into cells involve the use of viral vectors or cationic lipids and related cytofectins. Viral vectors can be used to transfer genes efficiently into some cell types, but they generally cannot be used to introduce chemically synthesized molecules into cells. An alternative approach is to use delivery formulations incorporating cationic lipids, which interact with nucleic acids through one end and lipids or membrane systems through another. Synthetic nucleic acids as well as plasmids can be delivered using the cytofectins, although the utility of such compounds is often limited by cell-type specificity, requirement for low serum during transfection, and toxicity.
Another approach to delivering biologically active molecules involves the use of conjugates. Conjugates are often selected based on the ability of certain molecules to be selectively transported into specific cells, for example via receptor-mediated endocytosis. By attaching a compound of interest to molecules that are actively transported across the cellular membranes, the effective transfer of that compound into cells or specific cellular organelles can be realized. Alternatively, molecules that are able to penetrate cellular membranes without active transport mechanisms, for example, various lipophilic molecules, can be used to deliver compounds of interest. Examples of molecules that can be utilized as conjugates include but are not limited to peptides, hormones, fatty acids, vitamins, flavonoids, sugars, reporter molecules, reporter enzymes, chelators, porphyrins, intercalators, and other molecules that are capable of penetrating cellular membranes, either by active transport or passive transport.
The delivery of compounds to specific cell types, for example, cancer cells or cells specific to particular tissues and organs, can be accomplished by utilizing receptors associated with specific cell types. Particular receptors are overexpressed in certain cancerous cells, including the high affinity folic acid receptor. For example, the high affinity folate receptor is a tumor marker that is overexpressed in a variety of neoplastic tissues, including breast, ovarian, cervical, colorectal, renal, and nasopharyngeal tumors, but is expressed to a very limited extent in normal tissues. The use of folic acid based conjugates to transport exogenous compounds across cell membranes can provide a targeted delivery approach to the treatment and diagnosis of disease and can provide a reduction in the required dose of therapeutic compounds. Furthermore, therapeutic bioavailability, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacokinetic parameters can be modulated through the use of bioconjugates, including folate bioconjugates. The synthesis of biologically active pteroyloligo-L-glutamates has been reported. A method for the solid phase synthesis of certain oligonucleotide-folate conjugates has been described, as well as oligonucleotides modified with specific conjugate groups. The use of biotin and folate conjugates to enhance transmembrane transport of exogenous molecules, including specific oligonucleotides has been reported. Certain folate conjugates, including specific nucleic acid folate conjugates with a phosphoramidite moiety attached to the nucleic acid component of the conjugate, and methods for the synthesis of these folate conjugates have been described. The synthesis of an intermediate, alpha-[2-(trimethylsilyl)ethoxycarbonyl]folic acid, useful in the synthesis of certain types of folate-nucleoside conjugates has been reported.
The delivery of compounds to other cell types can be accomplished by utilizing receptors associated with a certain type of cell, such as hepatocytes. For example, drug delivery systems utilizing receptor-mediated endocytosis have been employed to achieve drug targeting as well as drug-uptake enhancement. The asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPr) is unique to hepatocytes and binds branched galactose-terminal glycoproteins, such as asialoorosomucoid (ASOR). Binding of such glycoproteins or synthetic glycoconjugates to the receptor takes place with an affinity that strongly depends on the degree of branching of the oligosaccharide chain, for example, triatennary structures are bound with greater affinity than biatenarry or monoatennary chains (example of this high specificity through the use of N-acetyl-D-galactosamine as the carbohydrate moiety, which has higher affinity for the receptor, compared to galactose). This “clustering effect” has also been described for the binding and uptake of mannosyl-terminating glycoproteins or glycoconjugates. The use of galactose and galactosamine based conjugates to transport exogenous compounds across cell membranes can provide a targeted delivery approach to the treatment of liver disease such as HBV and HCV infection or hepatocellular carcinoma. The use of bioconjugates can also provide a reduction in the required dose of therapeutic compounds required for treatment. Furthermore, therapeutic bioavailability, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacokinetic parameters can be modulated through the use of bioconjugates.
A number of peptide based cellular transporters have been developed by several research groups. These peptides are capable of crossing cellular membranes in vitro and in vivo with high efficiency. Examples of such fusogenic peptides include a 16-amino acid fragment of the homeodomain of ANTENNAPEDIA, a Drosophila transcription factor; a 17-mer fragment representing the hydrophobic region of the signal sequence of Kaposi fibroblast growth factor with or without NLS domain; a 17-mer signal peptide sequence of caiman crocodylus Ig(5) light chain; a 17-amino acid fusion sequence of HIV envelope glycoprotein gp4114; the HIV-1 Tat49-57 fragment; a transportan A—achimeric 27-mer consisting of N-terminal fragment of neuropeptide galanine and membrane interacting wasp venom peptide mastoporan; and a 24-mer derived from influenza virus hemagglutinin envelope glycoprotein. These peptides were successfully used as part of an antisense oligodeoxyribonucleotide-peptide conjugate for cell culture transfection without lipids. In a number of cases, such conjugates demonstrated better cell culture efficacy then parent oligonucleotides transfected using lipid delivery. In addition, use of phage display techniques has identified several organ targeting and tumor targeting peptides in vivo. Conjugation of tumor targeting peptides to doxorubicin has been shown to significantly improve the toxicity profile and has demonstrated enhanced efficacy of doxorubicin in the in vivo murine cancer model MDA-MB-435 breast carcinoma.
Another approach to the intracellular delivery of biologically active molecules involves the use of cationic polymers (for example, the use of high molecular weight lysine polymers for increasing the transport of various molecules across cellular membranes has been described). Certain methods and compositions for transporting drugs and macromolecules across biological membranes in which the drug or macromolecule is covalently attached to a transport polymer consisting of from 6 to 25 subunits, at least 50% of which contain a guanidine or amidine side chain have been disclosed. The transport polymers are preferably polyarginine peptides composed of all D-, all L- or mixtures of D- and L-arginine. Described also are certain poly-lysine and poly-arginine compounds for the delivery of drugs and other agents across epithelial tissues, including the skin, gastrointestinal tract, pulmonary epithelium and blood-brain barrier. Certain polyarginine compounds and certain poly-lysine and polyarginine compounds for intra-ocular delivery of drugs have also been disclosed. Certain cyclodextran polymers compositions that include a cross-linked cationic polymer component and certain lipid based formulations have been disclosed.
Another approach to the intracellular delivery of biologically active molecules involves the use of liposomes or other particle forming compositions. Since the first description of liposomes in 1965, there has been a sustained interest and effort in the area of developing lipid-based carrier systems for the delivery of pharmaceutically active compounds. Liposomes are attractive drug carriers since they protect biological molecules from degradation while improving their cellular uptake. One of the most commonly used classes of liposome formulations for delivering polyanions (e.g., DNA) is that which contains cationic lipids. Lipid aggregates can be formed with macromolecules using cationic lipids alone or including other lipids and amphiphiles such as phosphatidylethanolamine. It is well known in the art that both the composition of the lipid formulation as well as its method of preparation have effect on the structure and size of the resultant anionic macromolecule-cationic lipid aggregate. These factors can be modulated to optimize delivery of polyanions to specific cell types in vitro and in vivo. The use of cationic lipids for cellular delivery of biologically active molecules has several advantages. The encapsulation of anionic compounds using cationic lipids is essentially quantitative due to electrostatic interaction. In addition, it is believed that the cationic lipids interact with the negatively charged cell membranes initiating cellular membrane transport.
Experiments have shown that plasmid DNA can be encapsulated in small particles that consist of a single plasmid encapsulated within a bilayer lipid vesicle. These particles typically contain the fusogenic lipid dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE), low levels of a cationic lipid, and can be stabilized in aqueous media by the presence of a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) coating. These particles have systemic applications as they exhibit extended circulation lifetimes following intravenous (i.v.) injection, can accumulate preferentially in various tissues and organs or tumors due to the enhanced vascular permeability in such regions, and can be designed to escape the lyosomic pathway of endocytosis by disruption of endosomal membranes. These properties can be useful in delivering biologically active molecules to various cell types for experimental and therapeutic applications. For example, the effective use of nucleic acid technologies such as short interfering RNA (siRNA), antisense, ribozymes, decoys, triplex forming oligonucleotides, 2-5A oligonucleotides, and aptamers in vitro and in vivo may benefit from efficient delivery of these compounds across cellular membranes. Certain compositions consisting of the combination of siRNA, certain amphipathic compounds, and certain polycations have been disclosed. Certain lipid based formulations, certain lipid encapsulated interfering RNA formulations, and certain polycationic compositions for the cellular delivery of polynucleotides have been described. Short interfering nucleic acid molecules (siNA) and various technologies for the delivery of siNA molecules and other polynucleotides have also been described.
In addition, recent work involving cationic lipid particles demonstrated the formation of two structurally different complexes comprising nucleic acid (or other polyanionic compound) and cationic lipid. One structure comprises a multilamellar structure with nucleic acid monolayers sandwiched between cationic lipid bilayers (“lamellar structure”). A second structure comprises a two dimensional hexagonal columnar phase structure (“inverted hexagonal structure”) in which nucleic acid molecules are encircled by cationic lipid in the formation of a hexagonal structure. Authors also demonstrated that the inverted hexagonal structure transfects mammalian cells more efficiently than the lamellar structure. Further, optical microscopy studies showed that the complexes comprising the lamellar structure bind stably to anionic vesicles without fusing to the vesicles, whereas the complexes comprising the inverted hexagonal structure are unstable and rapidly fuse to the anionic vesicles, releasing the nucleic acid upon fusion.
The structural transformation from lamellar phase to inverted hexagonal phase complexes is achieved either by incorporating a suitable helper lipid that assists in the adoption of an inverted hexagonal structure or by using a co-surfactant, such as hexanol. However, neither of these transformation conditions are suitable for delivery in biological systems. Furthermore, while the inverted hexagonal complex exhibits greater transfection efficiency, it has very poor serum stability compared to the lamellar complex. Thus, there remains a need to design delivery agents that are serum stable.